


All Ways and Means

by samjohnsson



Category: The Chicago Code, The Dresden Files (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-31
Updated: 2011-08-31
Packaged: 2017-10-29 07:42:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/317431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samjohnsson/pseuds/samjohnsson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are sources, and there are sources.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All Ways and Means

**Author's Note:**

> TV-verse, because I am contrary that way. Post-canon, for both shows. And yes, I can completely rationalize Marcone’s existence, even with the Irish Mafia behind Gibbons. (And yes, it means I am convinced that the Dresden TV-verse would've included Marcone & Co. at some point, because how could they not?) Also? [](http://templemarker.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**templemarker**](http://templemarker.dreamwidth.org/)  is brilliant, even though she says this is ready.

Wysocki whipped his head around from where he had been watching the storefronts go by. It wasn't bad enough that a perp had slammed him hard enough to bust his arm up and land him in a sling – no, Colvin finally carried through on her threat and stuck him and Evers on patrol as a “reward” for their latest publicity disaster. It meant dealing with Evers' driving – driving which really didn't explain why Evers suddenly whipped the car into a parking space in a semi-residential neighborhood. He snapped his head to look at Evers. “What’re you doing?”

“Pulling over. Obviously. Cut back on the painkillers. I need to run inside and ask someone something about the case.”

Oh, wonderful. “What case? You mean the case the Superintendent just told us we're not on any more? The case that we're not to get near if we like living in her city? The one that got us stuck on patrol? That case?”

Evers stared at his partner. “Yeah, that case. She told you to stay away from it. I can always say that you've been a horrible influence on me. She’d believe it. Anyway, I heard that a source knows something.”

“Where, here?” Wysocki turned his head back and forth, looking around. “There’s nothing around.”

“No, down the street five blocks and around the corner. Yes, here.” Evers motioned at a door across the street.

“There? It says ‘Wizard’.”

Evers sighed. “Yeah, that’s his schtick, complete with all the toys.”

“Gonna get him to cast a spell for you? Read your tea leaves? Summon up the victim?”

Wysocki was disappointed when Evers only rolled his eyes. “Whatever. I don’t believe a word of all that mumbo-jumbo he feeds his clients. But the man’s stayed in business for ten years as a P.I. Plus, Lieutenant Murphy down at the 27th thinks enough of him to keep using him as a consultant, and you know she’s got her dad’s instincts.”

“Murph's daughter? Yeah, Connie's a good cop. But why are we talking to him?”

“We aren’t. You are sitting in the car. I’m going to poke my head in and see what I can rattle loose. Don’t know why, but he seems to know a lot of weird shit about this city that he has no business knowing, and he left a message that he might have something for me.”

“I'm sure he does. Connie know you’re macking on her boyfriend?”

“Funny you’re all about the telling now. You told your fiancée about our dinner last week?”

“Thought I told you to leave off on that.”

“Yeah, you did. Doesn't mean I'm gonna listen until you do. Again.”

“Fine, whatever. Go talk to your little mystic man, I'll wait out here.”

Evers climbed out of the car. Before walking across the street, he stopped and leaned his head back in the window. “He's not little. Also, regardless of who comes out of there, stay in the damn car. If you only listen to me once this week, please, stay in the car.”

Wysocki stared at Evers' retreating form. “What's that supposed to mean?”

\---

Wysocki was drumming the fingers of his good hand against the dashboard when he saw Evers come out of the door, laughing as he held the door open for two other men. The first out seemed to be well over 6’ but scrawny, barely 175 lbs., mid 30s, with pale skin and dark hair, wearing a beat-up army coat that had seen better days and a well-practiced frown. The second man, slightly shorter and younger but built like a linebacker with short-cut copper hair, was walking backward and grinning while pointing at the former. Faintly he heard something like, “this time, you get the paperwork.” He watched Evers shake hands briefly with the red-head, then pull the other man into an awkward hug before coming back toward the car.

Evers tracked the other two men as they climbed into a beat-up Jeep and drove toward the Gold Coast before he got in the car. Wysocki took it as a sign to start in on him. “Hugging your sources, now? It there something I should know?”

“What, jealous?” Evers paused, grinning. “Nate was commenting that some of the kids he mentors gives him good practice for dealing with Harry, something about Harry being less of a danger if he had more human contact. I can't quote Harry's response, since you're so sensitive about language, but he was not amused. Rubbing it in by hugging him? I had to.”

“Nate...” Wysocki trailed off, distracted as he suddenly realized he'd seen the man’s face on a brief a few years ago. “Nate, as in Nathan Hendricks?”

“Think so. Never asked his full name – might have to do something if I knew. He was part of an after-school mentoring thing I helped with while on beat.”

“So now you're hanging around with the right-hand man of the head of the Italian Mafia.”

“No. I occasionally have a beer with Harry, who often finds issues for the police to address before they become crimes. Where he gets his information, I don't ask.”

Wysocki stared at Evers for a minute, then turned away, laughing. “No, no, you go ahead and laugh it up with Hendricks. The media will love irony that one of the cops who helped take down Killian is in bed with Marcone’s man. ‘Cause the chief doesn't have enough to deal with.”

“I’ve never been in bed with Nathan, not in the past, not now. I, unlike some people, am capable of only dating one person at a time. And you don't care that he was there talking to Dresden, as a 'concerned citizen of Chicago', about two or three suspicious individuals that precisely match the description our witnesses gave for that case we're not working on?”

“But...”

Evers talked right over him. “It’s tradition in Chicago, and you know it. One organization gives descriptions and locations to be passed on to the police, and the police do their job, conveniently taking the organization’s enemies down. In accounting, that’s all profit. It’s a bonus to us that it’s for the bastard that took those kids.”

“So now Marcone’s boys are organizing neighborhood watches? What’s next, helping little old ladies cross the street?”

Evers rolled his eyes. “You’re heard the same rumors I’ve heard: the head of the Mafia won’t put up with kids getting hurt. Which is why Harry called me when he verified the information from ‘his source’.”

“Their testimony won’t hold in court.”

“Nope.” Evers grinned and patted his pocket. “But I’ve got a list of names and addresses to stake out, given as an anonymous tip. We apparently might get lucky and find enough for a warrant.”

“And when the judge asks how we knew where to start looking?”

Evers grinned broadly at his partner, and waved toward the door. “We tell him the truth. Magic.”


End file.
